Saturday, March 2, 2013

Protecting Workers Rights

Today Sinn Féin is holding a conference in Liberty Hall looking at the
last century of workers in struggle.

I gave the opening speech, welcoming guest speakers, setting the
historical context, and raising the issues of today, especially the role of the
Labour Party and the Croke Park 2 agreement.

The initial bullet points gave a sense of the focus of my remarks and
they I include the full text.

Protecting
Workers Rights

·100 years after the Lockout this state is only one
of three EU member states in which workers have no legislated right to
workplace representation – have no right to sit across from their employers and
negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.

·Workers have no right to collective bargaining.

·The government claimed that current legislation
provides adequate protection.

·Workers deserve protection and they don’t have that.

·They deserve the
legal protection of the government, particularly a government which has a
Labour party component.

·Far from protecting workers on low and middle
incomes the government has aggressively gone after their increments and
unsocial hours pay.

·The Government threatens worse if the trade unions
don’t acquiesce to this plan.

·This threat, understandably opened up a dilemma for Trade Union leaders.

·Is the outcome of the recent negotiations better than one which would be
produced in a Government legislated pay adjustment?

·Clearly
some think it is.

·Which means
that they have little confidence in this government, and while that may well be
a given about Fine Gael what does this lack of confidence say about the
relationship of the wider Labour movement and the Labour Party?

·What is the
point of Labour in government if it is not about protecting workers and working
families and promoting equality?

·And what
say does the wider Labour movement have in these matters?

·These are
difficult times. Sinn Féin understands that.

·The working
people of this island, and I include workers from the unionist constituency,
need to hear an alternative to the right wing ideology which underpins many of
our political and media institutions.

·There is a
battle of ideas to be won and an alternative to be forged.

·Surely the
leaders of organised Labour in the trade unions have a role and a duty to be
part of this.

I want to welcome all of our guest speakers from the Trade Union Movement;
the historians, journalists, musicians and writers who are participating in
this very special event celebrating ‘A century of Workers in Struggle
1913-2013’.

I want to especially commend Seanadóir David Cullinane and the Sinn Féin
organising committee who put a lot of time and effort into this event.

The Dublin of 1913 was a city of grinding poverty and exploitation. Infant
mortality was among the highest in the world at that time. Thousands of
families lived in single rooms in crumbling tenement houses.

Workers had no rights. They were hired and fired at the whim of
employers. The children of workers had no childhood and no future. They often
worked from a very young age. In my home
city of Belfast at that time female and child labour predominated in the Linen Mills. Other
citizens lived and worked in appalling conditions; in the Docks, the Shipyards
and in casual labour.

In 1911 James Connolly was appointed Belfast organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. Connolly organised the workers of Belfast and especially the Linen slaves.

He
described their conditions: ‘Many Belfast
Mills are slaughterhouses for the women and penitentiaries for the children …’ where
‘with clothes drenched with water, and
hands torn and lacerated as a consequence of the speeding up of the machinery,
a qualified spinner in Belfast receives a wage less than some of our pious
millowners would spend weekly upon a dog.’

Ireland was also part of the British Empire. As a colony Ireland was used and abused and
exploited in the interests of British capitalism. As our long history of struggle for freedom
records, in every generation Irish men and women have opposed British
government involvement in Ireland. But nationalists and republicans were not
alone in combating the evil of colonialism.

The early trade unions of the 1700s – combinations of skilled and
unskilled workers –like the Belfast Cabinetmakers Club, the Regular Carpenters
of Dublin, and the Ancient Corporation of Carpenters of Cork and others, all
stood in defiance of those who sought to exploit their members. The first
anti-union laws were introduced in Ireland in the 1720’s.

But it also has to be acknowledged that colonialism and discriminatory
industrial development, primarily in the Lagan basin around Belfast, and the
use of sectarian politics, led to an early division among Irish trade unionists
with the creation of Irish based and British based trade unions. In 1894, the
year in which the Irish Trades Union Congress was established, there were 51
Irish based unions with a total membership of 11,000. British based unions had
a similar number of members.

But for all trade unionists the 1913 Lockout was the tipping point in
modern Irish trade union history. Workers and their families and their union,
found themselves in a pitched battle against the political, economic and media
establishment of their day.

When the Irish Transport and General Workers Union succeeded in
recruiting the workers in the Dublin United Tramways, the Company proceeded to
dismiss all known union members. The Dublin bosses demanded that employees
across hundreds of workplaces sign a pledge never to join or associate with the
ITGWU.

However, in a remarkable display of solidarity thousands of workers
refused to sign and were dismissed as one after another places of work closed
their gates to union members.

The employers had the backing of the British authorities in Dublin
Castle and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. During the months of the Lockout,
police and workers fought running battles, when the DMP moved against
protesting workers.

James Nolan and John Byrne were killed. And on August 31 the British authorities
banned a mass meeting in O’Connell Street which was then savagely attacked by
the police resulting in Ireland’s first Bloody Sunday of the 20th
century. One consequence of this was the formation of the Irish Citizen Army.

The end of the Lockout in early 1914 was inconclusive but the result was
not. Poverty forced strikers back to work but far from breaking the trade union
movement the Lockout saw it consolidate its strength and significantly grow in
the following decades.

The central issue in that dispute was the right to join a union, to
organise, to be able to engage in collective bargaining. It was about the right
of workers to be treated decently and fairly. Regrettably, these problems still
persist.

Connolly understood the importance of the connection between the
national and the social. They are the opposite sides of the same coin. He
famously linked the cause of Ireland with the cause of Labour - and was a
fierce opponent of plans for partition. He argued, correctly, that it would
create a carnival of reaction.

Connolly and Pearse and the leaders of 1916 presented a vision of a
different Ireland. It is found in the words of the Proclamation. These, for me,
should be the guiding principles for workers and republicans and socialists and
democrats today.

It is anti-sectarian; it embraces every Irish citizen; it declares the
’right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland’. The Proclamation: ‘guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal
opportunities for all citizens … cherishing all the children of the nation
equally.’

Those are great words – great ideas. These words are a
promise to every Irish citizen that she and he can share in the dignity of
humankind, as equals with equal opportunity; that we can enjoy freedom, educate
our children, provide for our families and live together with tolerance and
respect for each other.

However,
the two states imposed by partition failed to deliver these principles. Both
have been characterised by economic failure, by emigration, by backwardness on
social issues, by inequality and by the failure to protect the most vulnerable
of our citizens.

Those
who built this state also turned their backs on the north. They turned their
backs also on the ideals of independence and a genuine republic.

The
Southern State that developed was in hock to the Catholic Hierarchy while the
six counties became a ‘Protestant state
for a Protestant people’ in which structured political and religious
discrimination was endemic. Two conservative states ruled by two conservative
elites in their own narrow interests. The old colonial system replaced by a
neo-colonial one. And this is the context in which the trade union
movement has laboured.

It has been a difficult 100 years. Conditions in the north saw the
emergence of a trade unionism which many republicans and nationalists viewed as
largely ineffective. There are exceptions. Among them my friend and our comrade
Inez McCormack who died recently.

Inez was an exceptional trade union activist. She took part in the civil
rights campaign in the ‘60s; was an extraordinary trade union leader; an
internationalist; and a strong advocate for equality and for women’s rights. Inez
spoke out against discrimination and supported the MacBride principles campaign
for fair employment.

She also played a key role in the peace process. I found her advice on
equality and anti-discrimination measures crucial in the Good Friday Agreement
negotiations. Inez was a remarkable human being and I know she will be missed
by everyone in this hall.

In this state workers’ rights have not been protected or advanced as
they should. 100 years after the Lockout this state is only one of three EU
member states in which workers have no legislated right to workplace
representation – have no right to sit across from their employers and negotiate
the terms and conditions of their employment. Workers have no right to
collective bargaining.

When Sinn Féin introduced an Employment Rights Bill into the Dáil last
May it was to provide adequate safeguards for workers, including, to enhance
the period of notice for workers who are to be made redundant, and to expedite
the hearing and processing of claims to entitlements. Fine Gael and Labour
argued that it was unnecessary. The government claimed that current legislation
provides adequate protection.

Does any trade unionist in this hall believe that? Ask workers from
Waterford Crystal, or Vita Cortex, Visteon, Lagan Brick, Vodafone, GAME, La
Senza, Diageo, HMV and many more if their rights as workers are protected. They
have had to make a stand against injustice.

I am pleased to welcome to this conference today some of those who made
a stand for themselves and for other workers. So, I would ask the hall to give
a huge welcome to workers from Visteon, from Waterford Crystal, from Lagan
Brick and from Vita Cortex.

Their courage is an
example to us all.

But they shouldn’t
have been forced into taking the action they did. Workers deserve
protection and they don’t have that. They deserve the legal protection of the
government, particularly a government which has a Labour party component. Today the rights of
workers are under severe attack.

That includes the denial of a right to a job with decent terms and
conditions. Unemployment is at 14.2%. Youth unemployment is 27.7%. 87,000 have
emigrated in 2011 and that trend has continued. Companies
are tearing up agreements with workers, arbitrarily paying them off or denying
them wages or redundancy payments.

It is a truism that there are employers who do not believe in wasting a
good recession. During the boom of the Celtic Tiger there was a stubborn and
dismissive refusal to socialise the wealth and tackle inequality. Proposals by
Sinn Féin for investment in sustainable jobs, social housing, infrastructure or
hospitals and schools were ridiculed.

But when the bubble burst there was an immediate move to socialise the
debt and to force the disadvantaged and those on low and middle incomes and
other citizens to carry the burden of paying for the debts of the elites.

For right wing elites a recession is an opportunity to drive down wages;
sack workers; hire others at cheaper rates; cut overtime payments; demand
longer hours for less, and ignore the trade unions. The austerity policies of
the British conservative government and of the Fine Gael and Labour government
are a part of this approach.

In the last two years there have been a succession of savage cuts to
wages and incomes in the south and the introduction of new additional stealth
taxes, like the Household charge and family home tax; water charges; increased
VAT; Increased motor tax; as well as cuts to child benefit; cuts to homehelp
hours, to the carer’s respite care grant and much more.

This week the gov ernment again targeted the most vulnerable in our
society by scrapping the Mobility Allowance Scheme and the Motorised Transport
Grant Scheme.

I believe the Croke Park 2 agreement will exacerbate the austerity
driven agenda of this government and that working families – those on low and
middle incomes – will be squeezed again.

Frontline workers have been especially and unfairly targeted. They have
mortgages to pay; children to feed and clothe; school books to buy, and bills
to pay. None of their outgoings are going to be cut, just their income. Far
from protecting workers on low and middle incomes the government has
aggressively gone after their increments and unsocial hours pay.

The Government threatens worse if the trade unions don’t acquiesce to
this plan. This threat, understandably opened up a dilemma for Trade Union
leaders. Is the outcome of the recent negotiations better than one which would
be produced in a Government legislated pay adjustment?

Clearly some think it is. Which means
that they have little confidence in this government, and while that may well be
a given about Fine Gael what does this lack of confidence say about the
relationship of the wider Labour movement and the Labour Party?

What is the point of Labour in
government if it is not about protecting workers and working families and
promoting equality? And what say does the wider Labour movement have in these
matters? These are difficult times. Sinn Féin understands that. We also
understand tactics and strategy and compromise.

But all of these matters need
continuously contextualised in our vision for the future, our core values and
our objectives so that decisions on these issues advance our vision, our core
values and our objectives.

If we fail to do that then we risk
losing our way. This may not be a disaster in itself provided we are alert
enough to find our way again, before we lose all sense of what we are about and
where we are going. But we have to be constantly mindful of who we are. Where
we come from. What we stand for and where we want to go.

So, too with the Labour movement. The
working people of this island, and I include workers from the unionist
constituency, need to hear an alternative to the right wing ideology which
underpins many of our political and media institutions.

There is a battle of ideas to be won
and an alternative to be forged. Surely the leaders of organised Labour in the
trade unions have a role and a duty to be part of this. Austerity is not
working. The government has alternatives – it has other options. It could have
brought in a wealth tax. It could have introduced a third band of tax on those
earning more than €100,000.

Instead it is ordinary workers
who will bear the burden – again. This is not fair. Public service workers will decide
your position on the Croke Park proposals. That is a decision that you will
come to.

We wish you well in your deliberations. But whatever the outcome of
those deliberations it is important that you know that the trade union movement
today is needed more than ever in the Ireland of the 21st century. Workers
are looking to their respective unions for leadership and hope and solidarity
in the difficult time ahead.

And we will continue to work with you in securing protection for workers
and policy changes that will enhance the quality of life of all Irish citizens.
Today’s event is part of Sinn Féin’s contribution to the centenary of events
that marked the second decade of the 20th century.

It is a packed schedule of debate and discussion with many excellent
contributors, including Brian O Donoghue from LIUNA.